their business online—have an urgent
need to hire software experts that had
not been part of their old recruitment
model. “There’s a definite need to go
where the talent is—the city center
where young people are gentrifying
areas, where it’s fun and more
culturally diverse,” says Cook.

Today, as YA’s Behrens looks out
his office window onto the ultra-cool
landmark mural of Minnesota native
Bob Dylan, he can report the move has
paid off for recruiting new workers.

Before the relocation, YA had 90

employees at its headquarters, 20 of
whom worked in technology; since the
move, the firm has 130 headquarter
employees, more than half of whom
work in tech-based positions.

But for YA—and scores of other
companies that have made or are
considering similar moves amid the
urban rebirth of a new millennium—
that’s only half the story.

For one thing, the transition todigital and the increased recruitingpressure don’t eliminate the needfor experienced and already trainedhigh-value employees in otherdepartments—many of whom haveestablished homes or are raising kidsnear a suburban office location andaren’t eager to move.HR departmentsmust figure out how to retainemployees who’d been happy with thesuburban or rural lifestyle but nowsuddenly have a long commute.

“If you’re trying to attract a differenttype of worker, you might lose someof your more mature employees,” saysMatt Stevenson, a partner and leader ofthe Workforce Analytics and StrategyGroup at the Mercer consultancy.

He says his firm has worked with
relocating corporations to develop
analytics to determine which workers
are more likely to resist moving and to
create ways—compensation for higher
transportation or housing costs, for
example—to retain them.

In the case of YA, longtime
employees from Nor wood Young
America—accustomed to free parking
in that rural location—were given a
$200-a-month allowance to cover the
increased cost of commuting into